Protecting Private Forests Yields Public Benefits

The USDA Forest Service’s new report, Private Forests, Public Benefits, illustrates what we all might suspect, that privately held forests in the U.S. are under substantial stress from development and fragmentation and that increased housing density in forests will exacerbate other threats – wildfire, insects, pathogens and pollution. Privately owned forests make up 56 percent of all forested lands, emphasizing the importance of a collaborative, cross-boundary approach to conserving and restoring our forests.

Some of the report’s key findings include:

Housing density will increase on more than 57 million acres of America’s private forests between 2000 and 2030.

Up to 75 percent of the private forests in many regions are predicted to experience a substantial increase in housing density.

Private forests that play a critical role in supplying our nation with clean water resources, and the timber we need to build homes and communities across the country will be threatened.

A number of species including the already-endangered Florida panther and the grizzly bear are also expected to be put at risk because of loss of forested land.

The study also identifies areas where other threats to forests – like fire, pollution and disease – will be made much worse as a result of forest loss. For instance, as houses encroach on forests, the risks to human life and property from fire increase as do the costs of fire management and suppression.